Hearing Set for EIR on Proposed Campus

Cal State University officials today are set to release the final draft of an environmental study of the transformation of Camarillo State Hospital into a university campus.

The document, which is scheduled for review by members of the Cal State governing board at their Sept. 16 meeting, will be available today for public review at the proposed campus, 1878 S. Lewis Road.

At that same meeting, Cal State trustees are expected to decide whether to formally accept the hospital property and turn it into the new home of the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge.

The study addresses dozens of key issues ranging from the preservation of historic buildings at the hospital complex to the protection of sensitive wildlife habitat and Native American resources.

It also focuses on larger regional concerns including the proposed creation of a 16,000-seat amphitheater nearby and the potential for inducing growth and paving over farmland as the project moves forward.

An initial draft of the document was released in June for public review and comment.

“We appreciate the comments we received from the public during the draft [environmental review] period,” said Handel Evans, president of the proposed Channel Islands campus. “We have carefully considered and appropriately responded to this input.”

A summary of the report is available on the Internet at the university’s Web site: https://www.csuci.edu. For more information, call 383-8400.